Once Upon A Quinceanera Analysis

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Assimilation and Retroculturation When people talking about assimilation, they all think about the culture issue and identity problem. Identities and culture are easily to be changed and replaced. However, as the society developed, more immigrants are not only satisfy on the other culture assimilation but also on have interest on the retroculturation. Because of economics and social factors, people may lose their identities like name changing.The essay “Leave Your Name at the Border” written by Manuel Munoz, he talks about anglicization of Latino names in American culture. Because of many Mexicans names are mispronounced , they have to change their name and accept American culture.In addition, they have to alter their identites to have …show more content…
So they begin to have retroculturation and try to seek the old traditions and culture. In the article “ Once Upon a Quinceanera” written by Julia Alvarez, Alvarez touches on a various aspects of the quinceanera. Quinceanera is important of the girl’s lives which have the soical, economic and cultural factors. Assimilation and retroculuration are necessarily of the society developed, people will change their identities to redefine their self value and try to keep their traditions to have the community continuity. Different culture have their different identities, when they want to have a better life they will change their identities and find their sense of belonging. Individuals will change themselves to fit into a new culture and adapt to the dominant group. Name changing is the way to present Mexicans’ identities changing. Many Americans can not pronounce some Latino’s name and this problem is the barrier between dominant group and Mexicans immigrants. Munoz says “Ours, then, were names that stood as barriers to a complete embrace of an American identity”(308). Changing name is a easy thing for individuals but Mexicans need to …show more content…
When people are assimilate into another new culture, they would abandon their original culture and lose their own identities. Munoz says that “ The corrosive effect of assimilation is the displacement of one culture over another, the inability to sustain more than one way of being” ( Munoz 309). As long as one nation all lose their national identities, this nation has no longer to be alive. In order to prevent the displace of Mexicans culture, the second generation of Mexicans are bilingualism. They do not abandon their culture identities completely. The whole nation need to have retroculturazion to awake the national identities. Will finds out a study that “ confirms Will’s point that the up-and-coming generation of Hispanic teens is ‘predominantly bilingual and bicultural,’celebrating its ethnic identity and combining it with mainstream teen culture” ( Alvarez 56).The third generation of Spanish want to keep more Spanish traditions and establish cultural ties with their past. They are not only learn their culture identities but also they want to keep their original identities. They prefer to be bilingualism and biculturalism. The younger generation have responsibility to find their lost culture.Only in this way, the nation can be continue and to be stronger. Quinceanera is also the way that remind young people to remember their traditions and do not

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